Category Archives: Gift

The last few weeks have made it clear again how fast kids grow up. On Monday my eldest son had his last practice day at the primary school my daughter already goes to. He loves it.

On Tuesday he had his third swimming lesson. Eventhough his birthday wasn’t until the week after that. You see he had always gone to baby/toddler swimming lessons and since he was done with those too, he got to take the next step here as well.

He also had his last day at the daycare center on Tuesday so they celebrated that fact along with his birthday on that day. He wore his birthday crown all day and enjoyed being the center of attention throughout the day. For us, it was the perfect moment to thank the teachers. They are partly responsible for who he is because of what they offer him and do for him. We are so proud of our little man and so incredibly gratefull for the teachers at the daycare center.

The box we made at StampEvent, is what I recreated another 5 times for the teachers. I filled them with Ferrero Rocher chocolates because the ladies are worth their weight in gold.

The base of the box was a sheet of Thick Whisper White cardstock. By following the same instructions as at StampEvent it was easy to assemble the boxes quickly. I decorated some of the boxes with Bermuda Bay cardstock, ink and Shimmer Ribbon (which I had left over from Sale-a-bration) and with the Springtime Foils paper (also left over from Sale-a-bration) and Silver Foil Sheet.Others I made in Calypso Coral. For those I chose the Springtime Foils cardstock with the rose gold dots and combined it with some toner cardstock which I foiled with some rose gold foil using my Minc. The ribbon I used is by Stampin’ Up but was retired years ago and is no longer available. Because I don’t have the same punches as we used during StampEvent, I improvised and used my CreaLies XXL Nest Circle Dies. Some magnets are hidden in between the different circles in order to close the box. I used the following stamp sets to decorate the white circles. The sentiments are from In De Bloemetjes Zetten, the solid heart is from Jar Of Love and the line drawing of het heart is from Coffee Cafe.

By now my son has been in school for a week. He goes with such enthousiasm and always comes home cheerfully. He has settled in well and was clearly ready for this next step in his life.

Who would you like to give a gift like this to? And why? I look forward to reading about it in the comment section below.

See you next time,

Leonie

Independant Stampin’ Up Demonstrator in Eindhoven and surrounding area

When I get the opportunity to prepare a workshop for you, it is my goal to make sure everyone invited experiences it as a party. Of course it is set up as a fun experience by having a good time and crafting some pretty things with your friends, but it’s even better when there is a little gift waiting for you when you enter the hosts home.

As you may have read before, it was love at first sight with the Springtime Foils paper. And because of it’s thickness, it seemed like a smart choice to use this specific paper to make small packages for lipbalm, for each of the participants of last Saturday’s workshop.

The design of the box was quite simple. By folding the sides in, a container arises in the bottom, which neatly houses the lipbalm. The mini paperclip holds the box closed. I cut the cirkcle shape using a die from the Build a Bike Thinlits set (Annual Catalogue page 213). It is actually meant to cut out the wheel from the Bike Ride set (Annual Catalogue page 20). Using the Hexagon punch (from a couple of years ago) I cut out a pretty label to glue on top of the circle. I used a sentiment from the Jar of Love Stamp set (annual catalogue page 29) and silver heat embossed it. The leaves are also from the Jar of Love set. By gold heat embossing those I was able to mimic an element from the Specialty Designer Series paper so it all matched. I attached the hexagon to the golden circle with a Stampin’ Dimensional and slid the label under the paperclip.

Out of a single piece of Springtime Foils paper I was able to get 4 of these boxes. By making this project in assembly line style, I was able to finish them in a jiffy If you want to make similar boxes, or something else intirely from this paper, keep in mind that it is only temporarily available. It is a Sale-a-bration product that you can add for free to any order of €60 or more. Sale-a-bration lasts until March 31st 2018.

What would you make from this beautiful paper? I would love to read all about it in the comment section below this post.

See you next time,

Leonie

Independant Stampin’ Up demonstrator in Eindhoven and surrounding area

Left and right I hear different stories with regards to Valentine’s Day. Some think it’s just a bunch of commercial nonsense. Others believe it should be Valentine’s Day every day and others still kind of like it. I definately belong to the latter group, although I also like the idea of each day being Valentine’s Day. I think it is important to acknowledge the people in our lives from time to time and let them know how special they are to us. If Valentine’s Day serves as a reminder to that, fine. The fact that commercial enterprises play into that, is natural. But the feeling people get about being obligated to express feelings they don’t have, is going a bit too far and I don’t believe it is in the spirit of the day. Anyway, I made some Valentine’s Day projects that I would like to share with you.

Treats

One of the most imporant groups of people, in my opinion, is teaching assistants and teachers. They get a little treat, several times a year, from me to let them know how much we appreciate them. This year it was a little box made from a piece of 12″x12″ Whisper White cardstock on to wich I stamped a stamp from the Heart Happiness stamp set (Spring/Summer Catalogue page 20) with Real Red ink to create a background pattern. I cut the paper in 6″x4″pieces. Along the long side I scored the pieces at 1 1/4, 2 3/4, 4 and 5 1/2″. On the short end I just made a single scoreline at 1 1/4″. I cut up to the 1 1/4″scoreline along the score lines on the long side and cut away the little 1/2 x 1 1/4″ rectangle entirely. Next I added adhesive to the `1/2″ flap and glued it shut to create a tube. I folded in the sides and the back flap and added adhesive to the inside of the front flap in order to close it up and create the bottom of the box. I filled the box with 3 chocolate hearts and closed the top while pinching in the sides. Using a mini clothes peg from Action I secured the top. On a scrap piece of Whisper White cardstock I stamped the striped heart in VersaFine Onyx Black in and the medium sized solid heart with Real Red ink.. After fussy cutting them out I adhered the little heart to the striped heart using a Mini Stampin’ Dimensional and added them underneath the clothes peg. Cute, right?

Masculine card

I made 3 more cards. Two of them are very similar, but I’ll start with this one.

In my work space I have a tin containing projects that I’ve started. It contains extra stamp prints, backgrounds that I’ve made as an experiment and cards that I’ve started but don’t know how to finish. In that tin I found a pretty background I had made using watercolours. The colours beautifully matched some stamped images I had made with the Heart Happiness stamp set that I also had laying around. Now all I had to do was add some cardstock and tie a ribbon in order to complete a card. I used a rectangular die from the CreaLies CLNestXXL nr. 36 set to cut the cardstock to size. To add a little sparkle, I put a layer of Wink of Stella Clear Glitter on the green heart. A perfect masculine Valentine’s card.

Simple cards

The last cards are very similar. Again I used the Heart Happiness stamp set (page 20 of the Sping/Summer Catalogue). It is such a fun set. Using just 2 of the hearts you instantly have a cute card. I stamped the striped heart using the Melon Mambo ink.and stamped the floral heart in VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I used the watercolour pencils from the Lots of Happy Card Kit (page 15 of the Spring/Summer Catalogue). The pencils colours are: Flirty Flamingo, Lemon Lime Twist, Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry. Onto the Whisper White card base I repeatedly stamped the cluster of hearts with Rich Razzleberry ink. I adhered the pink heart with Tombow Multi Mono Liquid Glue and the floral heart with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

For the second card, the floral heart is created in the same way as the card with the pink heart. Only now the striped heart is stamped with Wild Wasabi ink. In the background I used the plus signs from the Oh So Eclectic stampset (Annual Catalogue, page 133). I thought the Blushing Bride colour was nice in combination with the rest of the colours. After fussy cutting the hearts, I attached them in the same manner as in the first card.

Sale-a-bration second release

Speaking of the Oh So Eclectic stamp set … as of February 16th some new products will be added to the Sale-a-bration rangechoose from, when you order for €60 or €120. One of those additions is a stamp set called Eclectic Expressions. It matches the Oh So Eclectic set beautifully but is also great as a stand alone set. It includes several watercolour type images and some more graphic elements. and is combined with two commonly used sentiments namely Thank you and Happy Birthday. The set is available as a wood mount set (the stamps are affixed to a wooden block once and are always ready for use) or as a clear mount set (the stamps are used in combination with clear blocks and are removed from the clear blocks after us to be stored away). In my opinion this is a versatile must-have set with which you can make a great number of combinations. If you want to place an order and earn this set, please get in touch with me or leave a comment below. Sale-a-bration is a temporary event and after March 31st this campaign will be over.

My niece, who just had her birthday, wanted a gift card for her favourite clothes store. As it happens, I have the perfect die set to make a fun card for such an occasion. And on the topic of clothing, the Loads of Fun stamp set by Lawn Fawn would be ideal to decorate the card. Unfortunately I was unable to attend her party in person, so I didn’t see her reaction to the card, but I’m assuming she liked it.

This was the front of the card.

And this is the inside. The gift card is underneath the flap.

To start of with I cut a panel to the same size as the card. In to this I cut the largest flap of the Lift the Flap dies. I stamped and masked the Dryer Sheets, next the Suds and finished by stamping the clothes hamper. Then I stamped the sentimant. The top part is in VersaFine Onyx Black ink, just as the images and the bottom part is in Lawn Fawn Mermaid ink. On the front of the card I stamped the images and only used a mask for the clothes hamper. I drew the washline with a black pen so I could stamp the clothes on it. Next I coloured everything using my waterbrush and Stampin’ Up ink in the colours Sahara Sand, Coastal Cabana, Watermelon Wonder and Rich Razzleberry. I adhered the gift card to the inside of the card and glued the panel on top of it. I cut off any overhanging paper using my scissors. I put a few drops of Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue on the bottom corners of the flap because I noticed it kept wanting to open. Finally I put some Wink of Stella clear glitter over the bubbles in the washing machine.